1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to manufacturing components and in particular to a method and apparatus for predicting processing times and capital cost for laying down tape on a composite component. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for simulating a layout process for a composite component.
2. Background
Aircraft are being designed and manufactured with greater and greater percentages of composite materials. Some aircraft may have more than fifty percent of their primary structure made from composite materials. Composite materials are used in aircraft to decrease the weight of the aircraft. This decreased weight improves payload capacities and fuel efficiencies. Further, composite materials also may provide improved corrosion and fatigue resistance for various components in an aircraft.
Composite materials are tough, light-weight materials, created by combining two or more dissimilar components to create a component with stronger properties than the original materials. Composite materials are typically non-metal materials. For example, a composite may include fibers and resins. The fibers and resins may be combined by curing or heating these components to form a cured product for the composite material.
In constructing composite components, such as a wing or fuselage, machines are used to build these components. For example, when building a wing panel, machines are used to lay-down composite materials, such as tape and fabric. The thickness of a layer of tape may be typically 7.5/1000 inches for each layer. The stack of composite materials is typically laid-down to around 0.5 inches. With this type of lay-down of materials, different orientations may occur for different materials and different layers to obtain the desired or optimal shape, strength, and durability for a component.
The amount of time needed for laying down materials for a component, such as a wing panel, may vary between different machines, different configurations of machines, and their cost. Further, the lay-down time for a particular component may change if the orientation of components, such as fabric or tape, changes. Further, the amount of time needed to lay-down materials for a composite wing panel may change if the thickness changes. These types of changes may vary the processing time needed to manufacture the different composite components for an aircraft.